I Wouldn't Write Off This Rally

This rally will get written off as an options-related short squeeze as the Web "slowdown" and the GE (GE - commentary - Cramer's Take) infrastructure and equipment "collapse" quickly morphed into some dramatic put-buying and call short-selling on everything from Schlumberger (SLB - commentary - Cramer's Take) to Caterpillar (CAT - commentary - Cramer's Take) to Eaton (ETN - commentary - Cramer's Take) to Deere (DE - commentary - Cramer's Take). You could kiss off anything financial if GE financial did poorly.

It was like the word had gotten out that GE couldn't be company-specific, and there was no sense to own anything if that company has so many fingers in so many pies.

Instead, when you get something upbeat like CAT, or a more upbeat Michael Gould from Schlumberger, you can only think to yourself, "Darn it all, that bottom was when Bear (BSC - commentary - Cramer's Take) blew up and I kept fighting it. I have to get long."

That, coupled by the fact that once again there was no letup in famine/oil/dollar -- which we now have all come to be a reason to buy everything from Exxon (XOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Monsanto (MON - commentary - Cramer's Take) to the whole machinery group -- and you know that to sit on the sidelines is too painful.

You can see the defensive stuff struggling, which is pretty amazing given the slowdown in the economy, but think about it like this: Who the heck would be short those names with such an economic slowdown?

How much better it would be to short the economy-centric names!

So, it happens.

Here's the way I view today: the direction is dead right. The speed? Too overwhelming. I love the machinery complex, but I know you have to wait for a downturn to get them now.

Oils? Buy 'em.

Ag? Once again the ag stocks have made such big moves that they need to meander before they can rock and roll again.

Is the consumer better?

Absolutely not.

But everything else sure looks like it is.

Random musings: There is no reason to believe EMC (EMC - commentary - Cramer's Take) is doing badly if you believe IBM's (IBM - commentary - Cramer's Take) earnings. ... I am making small changes in my Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, mostly picking at some stocks that have fallen out of favor because everyone thinks the soft good-counter-cyclical plays are done. Having picked at the ones that were not hot two weeks ago, I feel like cycling out of the red hots into things that aren't working, like Altria (MO - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Philip Morris International (PM - commentary - Cramer's Take).

At the time of publication, Cramer was long EMC, Altria and Philip Morris International. Jim Cramer is a featured commentator for CNBC, which is owned by General Electric; as part of his contract, Cramer holds restricted shares in GE.

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